Tracy Rocca’s work consists of intricate layers that are carefully built over time to achieve their characteristic luminosity and unique sense of depth. It was Rocca’s commute that led to the interpretation of landscape in her work. The faster Rocca moved, she noticed, the more tranquil the roadside landscape appeared. By obscuring and editing the details of a particular scene, Rocca’s fluid and expressive works resonate with a similar calmness. Rocca begins with color palettes as inspiration and from there allows the colors to convey the mood of the landscape. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and is included in the United States Embassies Collection, the Microsoft Art Collection, and the University of New Mexico Collection

About Tracy Rocca

Primarily self-taught, Tracy Rocca creates color-field paintings that are inspired by and allude to actual locations. Using light as her subject matter, Rocca obscures details in an effort to capture a landscape’s expressive aura. She paints with soft, mongoose brushes and oil paint blended with walnut oil, achieving a hazy, ethereal effect in her work. Based on photographs, her earlier works such as Back of the Boat (2010) and Corn Field (2011) included partly legible scenes, while her more recent paintings focus purely on colors that convey a landscape’s mood. Rocca adopted this approach after driving in the car and realizing that the scenery became less defined and more tranquil as she moved faster. This led her to slow down her sped-up visions by reverting them to pure color.